The church, in the southeast outskirts of Pekin, intertwined a dedication ceremony with the normal service Sunday morning to commemorate the new addition that doubled the size of the church. The new space covers 35,200 square feet and will further establish the church’s motto as a “church for everyone.”

“We say that we’re a church for everyone, and we use that phrase because we have everyone here,” said the Rev. Lloyd Brock, senior pastor at Pekin First Nazarene. “We have babies, children, teenagers, young adults going all the way up to senior adults. We have the whole family come here, so this building was built with that in mind.”

Equipped with a worship space for children, the addition includes a multiple rooms for the two Sunday school programs for children on Sundays along with other recreation-style rooms for use throughout the week. Other new features include new offices for the church’s pastors, a kitchen, a coffee shop and two multipurpose rooms for gatherings.

Brock said the value of building on 35,000 square feet is estimated at $4.4 million, but it was built for $2.5 million through extensive volunteerism and a slow pace — the church took three years to complete the project. Church board member and usher Chris Zimmerman also praised the volunteer effort from members of the church and said it brought the faith community even closer together.

“Members of the church put the walls up,” Zimmerman said. “It was amazing to see the amount of work and volunteerism. But it was very professional and saved us a lot of money.”

Zimmerman hinted that the new addition will not be used solely by the church, and that the multi-purpose rooms are ideal for a wider segment of the population in Pekin and beyond. For now, Sunday churchgoers toured the new facility before and after the lively dedication ceremony, which also honored the many people involved in its completion.

“We’re giving away these stones that people are writing their names on,” Brock said. “And they’ll put them out in our rock garden as a reminder of today’s event and the day we dedicated the new addition.”

Thomas Bruch can be reached at 686-3188 or tbruch@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasBruch.